Moments....

This is Caleb with one of our best friends John and his two boys...

Sharks and Minnows Kenyan style "Lions and Gazelles"

I love the babies' fascination with Caleb's hair...

Good Friends!!!  We love visitors!!!

I love how small Caleb looks here.  This was a great hike to visit a friends house!  

Fun friends...

Car Trouble - and a flash flood!

We've had some car trouble this week which has left us stranded at Kijabe. We thought the problem was fixed today so we headed back home. As we got to the bottom of the Rift Valley, it began to rain quite hard...in fact it's rained quite hard here for 44 days in a row. Everything is saturated. About 30 km into the rift valley we were reminded of the mud that has covered the roads. You can see here where they've removed the dirt to the side of the road. It's like 10 foot drifts of snow...only it's dirt.

As we proceeded, the car started acting strange and we decided we better turn back. And literally what we came through a few minutes earlier was filling up quickly with water as a flash flood covered the valley and began to fill the ditches on the side of the road.

The ditches quickly became full...flooding houses...

And eventually the road...

Exciting! Fortunately we made it back safely!

The Smith's are Moving to...

Over the last two years, our time in Kenya has been filled with a combination of really exciting life-saving opportunities and really frustrating personal and professional challenges. When we returned home in December for a short break, we were uncertain of our future and badly in need of time with people who know us. God used that time to refresh our family, heal relationships, unify our organization, and ignite our passion to rescue and develop orphan children in Kenya.

When we returned to Kenya, it was with very mixed emotions. Although we were excited by the work, we missed friends and family. We debated sending Katie back to boarding school, our other children were struggling emotionally and relationally, and the location of the guest house was not ideal for the fulfillment of Oasis’s vision. These were all challenges weighing heavily on our minds. Because of this, toward the end of December, we began praying specifically about exactly what God was asking us to do.

God was so good to us and began to reveal His plan for our future as soon as we landed in Kenya. While we waited for our luggage at the airport, a fellow “Muzungu” (white person) approached us to say hello. As we talked, we learned that he worked at Moffat Bible College in Kijabe, which is within walking distance of Rift Valley Academy (RVA), the school Katie attends. Over the next few weeks, a miraculous conversation continued that ultimately led to an offer of a very part-time teaching opportunity at Moffat along with the opportunity to live on campus and for all of our children to attend RVA. After discussing this with the Oasis board, they agreed that God was in this, and that relocating would be a strategic move for Oasis’s expansion.

Here are some of the benefits of this significant change:
 o Moving will enable our family to extend our commitment to Kenya beyond 2 years because our family can live together and our children will attend RVA, where they will have opportunities similar to those they would have in America.
 o Moving will put us in a more central location, where we can fulfill the vision of Oasis by creating partnerships with other Kenyan organizations beyond TMD.
 o Teaching at Moffat allows me to train pastors and network with leaders of communities all around Africa.
 o Creating some space between ourselves and the leadership at TMD will help eliminate some of the unhealthy dependence that has been created.
 o Moving will enable Ann to work full time for Oasis, as she will no longer need to home-school our children, allowing her to use her gifts of leadership and communication to inspire others with the work God is doing in Kenya.

We are so thankful for the support we have been given over the last two years. We are very grateful that people were willing to support us when we knew little more than God was asking us to move to Kenya. We now realize the extent of God’s work and strongly believe that, by staying in Kenya, we can help Oasis for Orphans rescue and develop hundreds more children. AND, God is going before us to provide a situation that allows us to accomplish His work in Kenya while keeping our family healthy.



The final confirmation we need is to know is that people are still willing to support us. We are in need of several more monthly supporters and have some one-time needs in order to move to Kijabe. We feel very humbled in making this ask but believe the work God is asking us to do makes it necessary. Thank you for prayerfully considering our support.